In the first of a three-part series marking ten years since the Brexit referendum, Tom, Lily and Sidd sit down with Dr Nicholas Startin, Associate Professor of International Relations at John Cabot University in Rome, to trace the long history of British Euroscepticism.

Nick takes the story back to Charles de Gaulle's two vetoes of British membership, the UK's eventual entry in 1973, and the referendum that followed just two years later. He revisits Margaret Thatcher's 1988 Bruges speech, often cited as the starting gun for modern Euroscepticism, and asks whether that reading really holds up. From there, the conversation moves through John Major's "bastards," the Maastricht rebellion, and the slow-burn rise of Farage, UKIP and the Brexit Party.

Nick also looks back on his own 2015 paper, written when almost no one else in his field was willing to predict a Leave vote, and closes by asking whether, with Gen Z overwhelmingly pro-European, Britain could ever find its way back into the EU.

Please leave a rating, share a comment, and subscribe!

To connect with Tom, Lily or Sidd, please find them on Instagram: @sparetom, @lilymott3, and @siddkurapati.

For more information about the show, please find Be the Change. Media Network on Instagram: @bethechangemedianetwork.

Opinions shared by the guests and hosts of this show are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Be the Change. Media Network.